The ability to track and locate shipping containers or other cargo within a terminal, such as a marine, rail, or intermodal terminal, is critical to the operation of the terminal. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a typical operation of unloading containers from a ship 110 or other vessel at a marine terminal 150. In the illustrated operation, the ship 110 arrives at the port laden with a stack of shipping containers 112 or other cargo. A quay crane 100 or other crane device removes the containers from the ship 110. In this regard, the quay crane 100 may include a crane boom 102 and a support structure 105 for supporting the crane boom 102. The quay crane 100 may also include an operator booth 106 in which an operator sits when operating the quay crane 100. The quay crane 100 has a headblock 103 suspended from the crane boom 102 by one or more cables. The headblock 103 can be raised and lowered vertically from the crane boom 102 and can be moved laterally (i.e., horizontally) along the crane boom 102. The headblock 103 is configured such that it may capture a container 108 from the stack of containers 112 on the ship 110. The headblock 103 with the container 108 is then raised above the ship 110 and moved laterally so that the container 108 is suspended over the ground.
Typically, the operation of unloading containers from the ship 110 involves transferring containers from the ship 110 to other vehicles, such as to a truck chassis 126 or “bomb cart” pulled by a utility tractor rig (UTR) 127. In this regard, the operation may involve the quay crane 100 placing the container 108 on the ground proximate to the crane 100 where a second smaller and more mobile crane or other moving apparatus may transfer the container 108 from the ground to the truck chassis 126 or to another location in the terminal 150. In other operations, such as in the illustrated operation, the quay crane 100 may transfer the container 108 directly onto a receiving vehicle 120.
After receiving a container 108, the receiving vehicle 120 may transport the container to a stack yard 135 where a straddle carrier 130, a top pick container handler 140, a reach stacker, or other container moving apparatus moves the container from the truck chassis to a stack of containers 135 or to another vehicle, such as a train or another truck. Where the container is moved to a stack yard 135, the container may be temporarily stored in the stack yard 135 and, at some point, moved by the straddle carrier 130 and/or some other container moving apparatus to a vehicle that will transport the container to a location outside of the terminal. In some modern terminals, some or all of this process is automated by, for example, using driverless UTRs that shuttle containers between the quay crane 100 and the stack yard 135.
The above-described process may be repeated continuously throughout the day and a typical terminal may process thousands of containers or other cargo each day. In addition to the normal inbound and outbound traffic, the cargo will occasionally have to be moved about the terminal for various reasons. Trucks, cranes, or other container moving equipment may be responsible for moving containers about the terminal. The terminal must not only efficiently move all of this cargo into, out of, and around the terminal, but the terminal must also monitor the movement of the cargo, the transporters, and the cargo moving equipment. Thus, there is a need for a more efficient and/or accurate system for tracking the cargo and equipment in a terminal and for managing and monitoring the activity in the terminal.
In most instances, the identification and recordation of shipping containers and/or the vehicles that transport the shipping containers is done manually, using spotters who write down or enter identification information into a logbook or a computer terminal. As is the case with any process that involves manual input of data, a system that employs manual identification and recordation of shipping containers and the vehicles or devices that transport the containers can be plagued with errors. Additionally, the manual systems do not provide for real-time reporting of the movement of cargo and vehicles in the terminal, nor do they provide for automated direct entry into the terminal's computerized operating system of a record of each time a piece of cargo is transferred to or from a cargo moving apparatus within the terminal.
To accurately monitor the movement of cargo and other equipment around the terminal, it would be advantageous to know which cargo is loaded onto exactly which vehicle, and to have this information be as accurate and timely as possible. It would also be advantageous to have such information reported to the terminal's computerized operating system automatically and in real-time or near-real time.